PHI PolicyWorks has released an updated State Chart Book on Wages for Personal and Home Care Aides (pdf). The chart book tracks wages in all 50 states and the District of Columbia for the period 1999-2008. It shows that nationally, the median real wage (adjusted for inflation) for personal and home care aides has decreased by 3 percent over nine years, from $7.50 to $7.31.

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Hilda Solis

A July 9 New York Times editorial calls for home care aides to receive minimum wage and overtime protections under the Fair Labor Standards Act. As the Times notes, in 2007, the Supreme Court upheld a 1975 labor regulation that defined home care aides as “companions,” but that regulation can be reversed anytime by Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis. This is the second editorial the Times has published on the issue; the first appeared in January 2009. Read the full story

In California, cheers from SEIU and other homecare supporters over the state’s abandonment of a plan to slash wages for home health workers (“Wage Cuts Avoided for CA Home Care Workers“) gave way to renewed protests last week as the state revisited the plan after being told that it does not, in fact, violate the terms of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) (“U.S. backs off threat to withhold California stimulus money,” Los Angeles Times, May 20).

The new ruling came a day after California voters rejected a series of fiscal ballot initiatives intended by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to help fix the budget.

In response, Schwarzenegger brought back the plan to cut wages for home care workers and began announcing a series of draconian cuts to state programs that would include, among other things, the complete elimination of welfare and medical insurance for low-income families.

“I understand that these cuts are very painful and they affect real lives,” he said. “This is the harsh reality and the reality that we face. Sacramento is not Washington — we cannot print our own money. We can only spend what we have” (“California faces its day of fiscal reckoning,” Yahoo! News, May 23).

SEIU and others react

SEIU and other homecare advocates have been swift to respond. On May 22 more than 5,000 homecare providers, care recipients, and disability and senior advocates rallied in front of the California State building in downtown Los Angeles to protest the proposed cuts to the state’s home care program.

On Tuesday — the very day that Schwarzenegger outlined a plan to cut funding for even more state programs– SEIU launched a planned month of protests, began a 48-hour vigil on the grounds of the state capitol, and filed a class action lawsuit seeking a preliminary injunction to stop the State of California and Fresno County from cutting home care worker wages and reducing care hours for seniors and people with disabilities. The suit charges that the cuts will put these people at risk and violate the ADA and federal Medicaid law.

On Wednesday the Los Angeles Times ran a letter from Pauline Beck, the California home care worker with whom Obama prominently spent a day during his presidential campaign in 2007, in which Beck pleads with the President not to let Schwarzenegger cut home care workers’ wages and hours. SEIU also began airing a television ad (see video at top of post) this week in the Los Angeles, Sacramento, and Fresno media markets, which shows presidential candidate Obama with Beck at her client’s home. The ad praises Obama for appreciating the commitment of home care workers to their clients and then challenges Gov. Schwarzenegger as someone who “doesn’t see [elders and people with disabilities] at all.”

Dr. Susan Chapman, associate professor at the University of California—San Francisco Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, warns that California’s health care workers may be overlooked. “Some of the importance of the home care issue gets lost in the overall picture of California’s giant fiscal crisis,” she told PHI.

She described the plan to take money away from California’s In-Home Supportive Services program as “short-sighted,” since “it may create a situation where more people have to resort to institutional care, which is far more expensive.”

She also said the negative impact on homecare workers themselves may hurt the state’s economy. “These people have to survive, and their wages are already so low that cutting them further will only make these workers more reliant on the state’s support services,” she said. “So for various reasons, it’s not clear at all that the governor’s plan will result in budgetary savings. In fact, it may end up losing money for the state in the long run.”

Hurting the powerless

Bernadette Lynch, president of California Association of Public Authorities for IHSS and executive director for Sacramento County IHSS Public Authority, told PHI the timing of the planned cuts could not be worse.

“IHSS provides services to hundreds of thousands of clients, and the economy is already devastating California’s families, so this isn’t a time to be cutting necessary support systems or reducing those already-small wages,” she said. “The current pay for homecare workers doesn’t even amount to a living wage at this point, except in one or two counties. Reducing it will end up causing a dearth of providers, which will hurt consumers. It’s devastating.”

She continued, “As always, it’s the people who tend to be less heard, who don’t have a voice, who are basically powerless, that will be hurt by this.”

Allison Lee, national campaign manager for the PHI Health Care for Health Care Workers campaign, recently testified before the Maine Health and Human Services Committee in support of LD1364 (rtf).

LD1364 is a bill that would standardize the wage rate for all personal assistance workers at a minimum of $12 per hour. Advocates are encouraging the state to use federal stimulus monies to fund the initiative.

Lee’s testimony:

Testimony of Allison Lee,
National Campaign Manager
Health Care for Health Care Workers
PHI

Prepared for the Maine Health and Human Services Committee
April 28, 2009

Thank you for the opportunity to submit testimony in support of LD 1364 – An Act To Stimulate the Economy by Expanding Opportunities for Personal Assistance Workers. PHI is a national non-profit that works to improve the quality of eldercare and disability services through improving the jobs of the direct-care workforce. For the past two years, I have been working with the Maine Direct-Care Coalition on a campaign to secure affordable, quality health care benefits for direct-care workers in the state.

Providing decent paying jobs with benefits is the key to providing quality care for Maine’s most vulnerable citizens. In 2006, according to the Maine Department of Labor, there were 23,182 direct-care workers employed in the state. However, that number underestimates the total number of workers as it does not count many workers who are employed directly by a consumer.

PHI analysis of the Maine occupational projections predicts that positions for personal assistance workers are expected to increase by 45% over the decade ending in 2016. These jobs make the list of the top ten fastest-growing jobs in the Maine economy and also the list of the top ten occupations expected to produce the largest number of annual openings. Yet, indicators show that the workforce is shrinking. In order to meet the growing demand for services, direct-care worker jobs must pay a decent wage to attract new entrants into the workforce.

While real wages for these workers have improved by roughly 4 percent over last decade, they are still under $9/hour. In addition, 40 percent of direct-care workers nationwide live in households that rely on one or more public benefits, such as Medicaid or food stamps, reflecting the heavy public subsidies required to compensate for the low wages and inadequate benefits received by most of these workers.

This predicted occupational growth presents an economic opportunity for the state of Maine. Direct-care worker jobs are the jobs of the future—they can’t be outsourced; they are recession‐proof and they can be powerful economic drivers improving the lives of many low‐income families and spurring community revitalization.

Maine can realize additional economic and social benefits by investing in direct-care jobs—higher tax revenues, reduced reliance on public benefits by direct-care workers, more efficient use of Medicaid and Medicare funds due to lower turnover costs, better retention of workers, and improved quality of care for aging and disabled populations.

LD 1364 is an important investment in a critical workforce. With the increased federal match that will be coming to the state, Maine would be wise to leverage state dollars to make a great impact on a vital economic engine – the direct-care workforce.

Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI)

Along with many economists and advocacy organizations, Rep.  Gwen Moore (D-WI) wants to see women’s poverty placed at the very top of the nation’s agenda. And she has exerted her political power as a U.S. representative to pursue this goal by advocating for the inclusion of women in President Obama’s economic stimulus package.

Moore’s passion for supporting low-income women is not just political but personal — She was a teenaged mother who lived on government assistance. Now she’s fighting to narrow the wage gap and increase post-secondary education for women on welfare. Thanks to a writeup at WomensEnews.org, we caught wind of the comments she delivered at the Democratic National Convention on women and poverty, and we tracked her down this week as she was on her way to cast votes in the House. Read the full story